Cosmetics and Personal Care Products in the Medicine and Science Collections -- Bathing (Body Soaps and Cleansers)
Bathing (Body Soaps and Cleansers)

This section includes products such as soaps and cleansers. The text below provides some historical context and shows how we can use these products to explore aspects of American history, for example, class and immigration. To skip the text and go directly to the objects, CLICK HERE
A variety of intertwined factors have shaped the history of bathing in America: the emergence of germ-theory; cultural notions connecting cleanliness with moral, upright living; concerns about personal attractiveness; and technological progress in plumbing and water supply.
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Pond Lily Toilet Wash advertisement, Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution |
Before the mid-nineteenth century, Americans seldom bathed for personal cleanliness. Many considered bathing to be unhealthy, believing it removed a “protective” layer of oil and dirt and exposed the body to unclean water and dangerous “miasmas,” or diseased air. Although great effort went into washing clothes, Americans associated the bathing of the body with negative stereotypes of European excess, luxury, and moral and physical softness.
After the Civil War, attitudes toward hygiene and bathing began to change. As an understanding of germ theory—the idea that microbes cause illness—came to be increasingly widespread, Americans began to place a greater emphasis on the role of sanitation in preventing disease and infection. By the 1880s, growing numbers of doctors promoted personal cleanliness as one of the most important factors in stopping disease.
However, limited access to clean water still hindered the widespread adoption of bathing. This all changed during the mid- to late nineteenth century as improvements in plumbing technology enabled many cities to provide clean water and hygienic sewer systems to residents. In response to this change, many upper- and middle-class Americans installed bathtubs with running water in their homes. Working-class Americans living in tenements did not have the same access to running water.
Civic and governmental organizations pushed for access to plumbing and bathing for the poorer classes. In “A Nation that Bathes Together,” Andrea Renner notes that these organizations equated unassimilated immigrants and poverty with a lack of hygiene. For many reformers, “poor working-class hygiene was viewed as a sign of moral failure as well as a threat to public health.” To address this problem, New York City built free public bath houses to encourage bathing. In 1891, New Yorkers were each given a free cake of Colgate soap as they waited their turn to try out the city’s first public bath.
Good personal hygiene now became synonymous with being a good American. By 1890, soap manufacturers, such as Colgate, Proctor and Gamble, Palmolive, Mennen Company, Bristol-Meyers, and Johnson & Johnson, had proliferated. Soap companies used the perceived connection between Americanness and cleanliness to their advantage. Advertisements showed soaps as products of progress, able to wash away foreignness, ignorance, poverty, lawlessness, and general immorality.
By the 1920s, bathing had become an essential part of a healthy hygiene ritual. Yet, American soap manufacturers faced stiff competition. Not only were soap brands competing against each other, they were also competing against a flood of cosmetics and cosmetic cleansers vying for consumer dollars. In 1927, a trade association of American soap manufacturers established the Cleanliness Institute to help boost sales. The Institute created promotional materials stressing the connection between bathing with soap and American health. These materials were distributed via radio and magazine advertisements, as “press releases,” and within school curriculums.
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Bay West Wash-Up Kit | Bay West Wash-Up Kit -"Every emergency Wash-up demands it!" |
To build brand identity, soap advertisements both played on and created social and health fears, all while assuring consumers that their brand offered hope. Ivory Soap’s advertising campaigns maintained that the soap is “99 44/100% Pure” and that more doctors advised the use of Ivory than any other soap. Other manufacturers chided consumers by suggesting that failure to use their product would result in a lifetime of loneliness and lost opportunities. Ads for Lifebuoy Deodorant Soap warned female consumers that their B.O. “condition” (body odor) alienated potential mates, friends, and even husbands. Men were warned that the same “condition” could prevent a promotion at work. Lux, a scented soap, used celebrity endorsements to admonish women, claiming that they should be “dainty” if they wanted to “win out” in their social and romantic endeavors.
Frequent and thorough bathing as part of a good hygiene regimen has become increasingly central to Americans’ understanding of a healthy lifestyle. Katherine Ashenburg points out that nearly one in four American houses built in 2005 had three or more bathrooms. Cleansing products are ubiquitous in the traditional drug store, but are also found in boutique clothing and home decorating stores. In fact, Americans now bathe so frequently that they can cause themselves harm. Antibacterial soaps, such as those containing the compound triclosan, have become so popular that some scientists are concerned that their use might be contributing to antibiotic resistance. Doctors also now warn that skin conditions are frequently caused by the soaps we use to wash our bodies and clothes.
Bibliography ~ see the Bibliography Section for a full list of the references used in the making if this Object Group. However, the Bathing (Body Soaps and Cleansers) section relied on the following references:
Andrews, Margaret R, and Mary M Talbot. All the World and Her Husband: Women in Twentieth-century Consumer Culture. London; New York: Cassell, 2000.
Ashenburg, Katherine. The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History. New York: North Point Press, 2007
Meek, Richard William, Hrushi Vyas, and Laura Jane Violet Piddock. “Nonmedical Uses of Antibiotics: Time to Restrict Their Use?” PLOS Biol 13, no. 10 (October 7, 2015): e1002266. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1002266.
Morris, Edwin T. Fragrance: The Story of Perfume from Cleopatra to Chanel. New York: Scribner, 1984.
Renner, Andrea. “A Nation That Bathes Together: New York City’s Progressive Era Public Baths.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 67, no. 4 (December 1, 2008): 504–31. doi:10.1525/jsah.2008.67.4.504.
Rosenberg, Charles E, Library Company of Philadelphia, and College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Right Living: An Anglo-American Tradition of Self-help Medicine and Hygiene. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.
Smith, Virginia. Clean: A History of Personal Hygiene and Purity. Oxford University Press, 2007.
Vinikas, Vincent. Soft Soap, Hard Sell: American Hygiene in an Age of Advertisement. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1992.


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Packers Healing Tar Soap
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Packer Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- 1979.0798.222.01
- accession number
- 1979.0798
- catalog number
- 1979.0798.222.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Uncle Sam's Hand Soap
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Andrew Jergens Company
- ID Number
- 1980.0698.118
- catalog number
- 1980.0698.118
- accession number
- 1980.0698
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Velvetina Complexion Soap
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Goodrich Drug Company
- ID Number
- 1978.0883.131.01
- accession number
- 1978.0883
- catalog number
- 1978.0883.131.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Bay West Wash-up Kit
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1926 - 1929
- Associated Date
- 1926-11-24
- 1928-07-24
- maker
- Bay West Company
- ID Number
- 1982.0274.05
- accession number
- 1982.0274
- catalog number
- 1982.0274.05
- patent number
- 1,678,370
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Velvetina Complexion Soap
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Goodrich Drug Company
- ID Number
- 1978.0883.131.02
- accession number
- 1978.0883
- catalog number
- 1978.0883.131.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Golden Peacock Soap
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Paris Toilet Company
- ID Number
- 1980.0698.121
- accession number
- 1980.0698
- catalog number
- 1980.0698.121
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Velvetina Complexion Soap
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Goodrich Drug Company
- ID Number
- 1979.0798.196
- accession number
- 1979.0798
- catalog number
- 1979.0798.196
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Klex Pumice Soap
- Description
- The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are:
- Klex is especially recommended for mechanics, autoists, printers, office workers or painters who must remove grease, grime, paint or oil from their hands.
- Klex collects greased and grime. Lathers in any water of any temperature.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1940s
- maker
- Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company
- ID Number
- 1982.0031.08
- accession number
- 1982.0031
- catalog number
- 1982.0031.08
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Velvetina Complexion Soap
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1917
- maker
- Goodrich Drug Company
- ID Number
- 1979.0798.197
- accession number
- 1979.0798
- catalog number
- 1979.0798.197
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Packers Healing Tar Soap
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Packer Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- 1979.0798.222.02
- accession number
- 1979.0798
- catalog number
- 1979.0798.222.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Sem-Pray Jo-Ve-Nay, Sempre Giovine (Always Young)
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1933-1935
- maker
- Sem-Pray Jo-Ve-Nay Company
- ID Number
- 1980.0698.120
- accession number
- 1980.0698
- catalog number
- 1980.0698.120
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Lowila Cake Soapless, Non-irritant, Efficient Skin Cleanser
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Westwood Pharmaceuticals
- ID Number
- 1981.0219.034
- accession number
- 1981.0219
- catalog number
- 1981.0219.034
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Soap
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 1982.0004.05
- catalog number
- 1982.0004.05
- accession number
- 1982.0004
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Lilly's Diamond Antiseptic Soap
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Eli Lilly and Company
- ID Number
- 1982.0498.11
- catalog number
- 1982.0498.11
- accession number
- 1982.0498
- maker number
- 744
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Rugby Vitamin E Health and Beauty Soap
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Rugby Laboratories, Inc.
- ID Number
- 1983.0116.14
- catalog number
- 1983.0116.14
- accession number
- 1983.0116
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Rugby Vitamin E Health and Beauty Soap
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Rugby Laboratories, Inc.
- ID Number
- 1983.0116.16
- catalog number
- 1983.0116.16
- accession number
- 1983.0116
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Bath of Isis
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Louise Leighton, Inc.
- ID Number
- 1984.0782.359
- catalog number
- 1984.0782.359
- accession number
- 1984.0782
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Ivory Soap, Personal Size
- Description
- This object is one of over 700 medically related objects used on the set of the television show M*A*S*H. Most of these items are authentic medical instruments, supplies, and equipment from the 1950s.
- M*A*S*H was an award-winning television show based on the bestselling novel and Oscar winning motion picture film of the same title. It portrayed the lives of doctors and nurses assigned to a fictitious medical unit, the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, based in Uijeongbu, Korea during the 1950-1953 war. The program was initially broadcast from September 17, 1972 to February 28, 1983.
- After the show ended in 1983, Twentieth Century Fox donated material from the two major sets, the “Swamp” and the “Operating Theater,” to the museum, along with scripts, photographs, and interviews with individuals who served in MASH units in Korea and Vietnam. See accessions 1983.0095, 1985.0335, 1988.0748, 1988.3163, and archival collection NMAH.AC.0117, for further MASH material.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Procter & Gamble Company
- ID Number
- 1985.0252.444
- accession number
- 1985.0252
- catalog number
- 1985.0252.444
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Quickies Face Cleansing Pads, Moisturized
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Associated Products
- ID Number
- 1985.0460.130
- accession number
- 1985.0460
- catalog number
- 1985.0460.130
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Purity Soap Leaves - Moore's Sheet or Book Soap
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Moore Brothers Company
- ID Number
- 1985.0460.155
- accession number
- 1985.0460
- catalog number
- 1985.0460.155
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History